Romanov
In The Merlin Conspiracy, Romanov is the most magically talented person to emerge from the world of Blest. He lives on an island that is built of slices of many worlds, and that is located at least ten years apart from the timeline of the related worlds, which makes it very difficult for his enemies to find him. Romanov is described as jagged-looking -- thin and powerful, with a sharp beak of a nose, and a sense of intensity and power that is hard to miss. First Appearance Romanov appears out of nowhere, in a dreamlike jungle environment to which Nick Mallory has escaped to. Nick doesn't know quite where he is, nor where he escaped from, but it is beginning to appear increasingly as if it isn't a dream, but another world. His last instruction had been to find his totem animal, but the first animal he encounters is a terrifying black panther, who seems to be following him in order to eat him. While cowering high on a branch of a tree, Nick sees Romanov on a path below him, walking with a huge spotted cat who resembles him in its arrogance and aura of power. Romanov pulls Nick down to the ground with a single command, and considers him in a frowning, puzzled way. He tells the boy that someone offered him a contract to kill Nick, and he is trying to figure out why. Deciding that Nick looks pretty harmless, Romanov stalks off again with his cat. Nick is relieved that a death threat has been avoided, but he decides that since he is stranded in a dangerous place that is god-knows-where, his best bet is to try to find where Romanov has gone and ask him for his help. Second Appearance The next time we see Romanov, Nick has managed to find his home by following the vibes he can still feel in the paths Romanov has walked on. Nick has spent a dreadful time in a world dominated by a supercilious lot called Prayermasters, and has gotten into trouble there for being a vagrant. By mentioning Romanov to the poorest working folks he encounters there, he learns that they're indebted to Romanov for protective spells against the sun's radiation, which is intense. As a result, they willingly advise him where to connect with the paths that will lead to the place Romanov goes when he leaves them. Nick follows those directions and finds himself, along with a young elephant (Mini) he meets and helps along the way, in Romanov's world, where he finds Romanov himself in bed and very ill. Romanov's World and Creatures Romanov lives in a pretty luxurious modern mansion on an island that is perched on a landscape stitched together out of many worlds. Inside there is a huge kitchen, a comfortable living room with a library, a luxurious bathroom, some type of magical workroom, and a gigantic bedroom where Romanov is lying in a fever. Both the land and the water surrounding the island are almost striped with the plants and climate of the place they are actually a part of, so parts of the sea are sunny, warm and tropical, while others are marshy and overcast. There is a large walled garden full of an abundance of triving fruit trees, vegetable plants, and other plants Nick doesn't recognize. In addition to Nick and Mini, there is a goat outside who keeps bleating in what sounds like hunger. Mini is hungry too, but Nick is afraid Romanov won't want her to eat any of the garden plants. He tiptoes in and asks Romanov where he can find something to feed the goat and the elephant, and Romanov groggily tells him to open one of the sheds while requesting exactly the kind of food he needs for the animals, which Nick does. As time goes on, and Romanov seems to be getting sicker, the island, the house, and the house's furnishings all seem to diminish, until it's beginning to resemble a falling-apart shack more than a mansion. Hostile people from the Prayermaster world arrive, but leave suddenly as Nick is trying to defend the house and its unconscious owner. Just at that point, Maxwell Hyde wanders in from the dark paths somewhere, and manages to break the plague spell on Romanov and get the island and the house moving back towards normal. Eventual Quest to Find the Abductees After Romanov is found to be on the mend, Maxwell Hyde takes Nick back to Nick's home on earth as he'd promised Nick's father, and then back to his own home on Blest for some training in magic. However, during that visit Hyde himself, along with all the other hereditary witches and wizards of Blest, are abducted by the Wild Hunt and taken to some unknown place. The children who are left behind -- including Nick and four of Maxwell Hyde's grandchildren -- follow the goat, which has appeared in the Hydes' back garden, back to Romanov's island, where Nick is reunited with the now-fully-grown Mini and they are able to explain to a now-healthy Romanov about the conspiracy and the abduction of Blest's magical folk. Romanov leads them all off on a journey from world to world riding on the elephant, and they are able to find the abductees, learn who it is who has captured them and why, and the group splits up to finish their various tasks and save the day. In so doing, we also learn exactly how Romanov himself is related to Blest and to various of the actors in the novel as a whole. Category:Magids characters